Tara DeMaro
Tara DeMaro is a halfling bard that is the second-eldest child in the DeMaro family. She grew up on the road with her two parents, her older sister, and her younger twin brothers. Tara was supposed to take up an alias and join her sister as a fellow cutpurse, but she was too curious about the whereabouts and info of a certain stranger in a dark-green cloak. Tara has been on her own for 2 years trying to find answers about the cloaked being and what happened to him on the night he left her. Armed with a family heirloom and the bagpipes he gave to her, Tara set foot into the town of Bareshire in order to chase a small rumor that he was sighted there. Unfortunately, she couldn't stay out of the spotlight and used the nearest bar fight to test out a new song to give people a pep in their step. She's joined up with three other people that were in the bar fight and hopes that these interesting companions would bring light to a new lead on her love. Biography Family is Forever Born into a family of cutpurses, some retired and some still actively prowling the streets, Tara’s childhood was easygoing and eventful. Her family had to jump from town to town partially due to growing rumors about her family and the fact that her eldest sister is still a notorious cutpurse known as the “Slinking Shadow.” Merric DeMaro, formerly known as Slithering Smirk, is her protective father and the one who was in charge of mapping out camp grounds and escape routes. He actually sent Tara letters during the first year she separated from the family caravan. Pippi DeMaro, formerly known as The Sky-Skating Sweetheart, is her cunning yet cheerful mother and the one that can be quite scary when she wants to be. She is the one who supported Tara the most when she decided to become a bard instead of a cutpurse. Shaena DeMaro, known as the Slinking Shadow, is Tara's eldest sister and the strongest member in her family. Although she was the most disappointed in Tara's choice, she was the one to give the family heirloom to Tara for good luck. The twin brothers, Alton and Eldon DeMaro, are Tara's youngest siblings and they were the ones in charge of gathering supplies and they had a knack for snatching pouches in heavily populated towns. With almost all the bases covered, this left Tara with the job of tagging along with her mother and making sure that no one ends up in a jail cell. Whenever Shaena couldn't lose the local militia or a squadron of knights, Tara would breathe fire into the sky and signal the rest of the family to provide a little mayhem in the streets to split up their forces. There was a time where the only person that ended up in jail was Tara herself; she accidentally set fire to tavern and burnt it down with her signal. In her downtime, Tara tries to find a spellcaster willing to give a few glamors to her in exchange for gold to hide her unusual eyes. Purple eyes is a trait that runs in the female halflings on her mother's side of the family due to a curse that was casted on her great-great-great grandmother for refusing the advances of a Svirfneblin wizard. How Did We End Up Here In the last town she visited with her family, she ran into a solemn looking performer wearing a dark green cloak and playing the pan flute. Although his beautiful playing had drawn a small crowd, they didn’t appear to enjoy the somber songs he continued to play. The poor sight made her yell at the performer. “Oi! Are you gonna actually play something or are you gonna keep crying into your flute?” The performer didn’t take the statement too well and lashed out at Tara. While tension rose between the two, the crowd around them grew larger. Awakening the performer within her, Tara decided to show him how to entertain a crowd with her acrobatic ability and simple fire eating tricks. She was still a bit hesitant to try out the more flamboyant tricks to fire eating after the tavern burning incident. After a few tricks, the performer started to play a classic and joyful tavern song. The crowd roared with applause and urged the dueling performers to continue. Whether it was the cheers from crowd or the little things she noticed about the performer, like the way he smiled when she jumped around to the beat of his song or how he started to sing harmony to the tavern songs she belted out, Tara and the performer entertained the crowd together with silly dances and the songs of drunk folk. Just Please Hold On and Soon You'll See For two years, the two grew very attached to each other. He was her first admirer in her years of performing and he helped her hone her skills as a fire eater. He even gave her the bagpipes and taught her how to play it so that they could play their instruments together one day. In return, she taught him the Halfling language and several acrobatic moves that were passed down to every member of her family. As a matter of fact, when she dragged him to the outskirts of town to meet her family, they joked around saying that they were the walking embodiment of “Opposites Attract.” Where he was silent and imposing, she was loud and merry. During their time they were together, Tara thought that these sweet moments would last until their deaths until she woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of blaring horns. The horns played a single low note that was loud enough to strike fear but not enough to cause mayhem in the streets. Quickly scrambling out of her tent, she ran towards the town entrance only to be stopped by her lover. Shocked by his sudden appearance and by how closely in detail she could see his face, Tara could feel that for once in her life, she was afraid. The love of her life was covering his left eye to hide the blood and wound. He had unnaturally small horns protruding from his forehead and the left one was chipped in an odd spot as if he was recently struck with a weapon. She wanted answers to all the questions whirling inside her head. Who did this to him? Why did he leave town so suddenly? Why did he hide his odd Tiefling appearance from her? But she couldn’t find the will to say anything; Tara just stared into his remaining grey eye and desperately tried to burn his appearance into her memory. It almost felt as if he was trying to do the same. Without a word, he pressed freshly cleaned bone pipes into her hands and took off into the night.Category:Characters